SO you found a house that you love but because our San Diego prices can be daunting sometimes you have to “tighten” up that wish list when house hunting. Here are a few tricks that can help a buyer achieve more space literally using “smoke and mirrors” (neither term that I like to use for a kitchen).

This should be common sense but sometimes its easier hearing it from another source. Think LIGHT! Light colors just open up a space. There are a billion colors of “white”. There use to be one “Navajo White”. No more! So if you are thinking of painting the cabinets a trendy “grey” just go a Dunn Edwards store (or just about any paint department) and they can recommend paint for cabinets. Paint for walls, Paint for ceilings. Don’t look at 100000 color swatches. Let someone help you decide! Dunn Edwards in Del Mar is usually not that crowded and are happy to help. Plus they have list of painters they recommend.

Back splashes are also amazing these days. No longer do you have to pick up ONE tile at a time and pray it all turns out. They literally come in STRIPS that you can hold up to your wall and decide if you like the look before you glue it down. Then grout. And there’s a LOT of grout options! Pick a bold design which will give the room focus point it would have had before. You can literally buy a few strips and then decide. If you are handy you can actually do it yourself. I personally hire a professional handyman to be on the safe side. I LOVE back splashes!

Shelving is wonderful! Is there room above the stove? Are your cabinets low enough so you can hang shelves above them? Is there some wall space for shelving unit? Then put some of your loved possessions with bright colors to give that kitchen sparkle and shine! Painting the shelves bright white also adds “pop” to small space.If possible remove some cabinet doors. Paint the inside of the cabinets and leave open or go to a glass store and take cabinet doors. See how these can be altered to fit in some glass inserts.

Pot racks are great. Some people don’t like them but I love to cook and show off the wares! You can even do restaurant shelving like the photo above and with large hooks use the sides and back of the shelving to hang pots and accessories.

Small kitchens can have their very own feel. Let your imagination run wild!

With the help of a past Staging Course as well as Pottery Barn ideas I was excited to pick up some additional tips to pass on to clients thinking of relocating and selling their home. They were going to another state so the size of the new property would be the same or maybe a tad larger so the ideas could happily travel with them on the journey. I am fortunate to have a natural ability to “move furniture” around as well as having completed the Staging Institute Course so the following ideas were fairly easy to implement.

The living room was spacious and offered nice views of a canyon not super close but just far enough to add scenery when gazing out the windows. It was interesting to note that they had a large sectional that faced a fire place. Now in the winter and fall the fireplace is probably “roaring” at night- but the other two seasons you are looking at a nice mantel. The sectional is great when you want to all spread out together, including the dogs, but for sheer entertaining and being functional a sectional takes up most of a room and usually can only be laid out in one way. There was also a lovely imitation Person Rug that defined the layout of the sectional and the coffee table while leaving lots of empty “air space” in the room that was going to waste.

Solutions were fairly easy as the family was not overly fond of the sectional anyway and it had seen better days. The concern of the area rug was easy. You can literally go to any store that sells “carpet” and give them dimensions you can pick out style you like and have it “cut to size?. They will even bind it for you so no frayed edges and “poof” you have the perfect size carpet. This can be included when selling the home or taken with you. The floors were older Oak Engineered Wood so this was perfect as carpet blended in perfectly covering most of the wood yet utilizing the edges to frame the room!

We had budget for furniture spending and these days many stores that offer great pieces at reasonable prices. Taking into account being able to see the views two separate “non matching couches were purchased as well as one arm chair. Different sitting areas were designed to take advantage of the view as well as the fireplace. Chairs and end tables were grouped into what was previously vacant space and instead of three lamps there were not five for better lighting. The great thing is the rug can be left for new owners or taken with sellers. Voila room transformed. I bet new owners will want to buy the sitting area furniture!

This is one of my favorite parts of selling real estate! Plus you get my services for free when you list with us! Luxury Living truly at every price point!